Cavaliers focused on teamwork, NBA championship

Tuesday

Sep 30, 2008 at 12:01 AMSep 30, 2008 at 11:54 PM

A month removed from winning a gold medal, LeBron James does not sound anywhere close to being satisfied as a basketball player. The Cavaliers superstar made it clear Monday that his sole purpose this season is to earn an NBA championship ring.

Chris Beaven

A month removed from winning a gold medal, LeBron James does not sound anywhere close to being satisfied as a basketball player.

The Cavaliers superstar made it clear Monday that his sole purpose this season is to earn an NBA championship ring.

“I think I can lead these guys to the championship,” James said during media day at Cleveland Clinic Courts. “We really believe that. It's not about making the playoffs for our team anymore. It's about winning a championship.”

James is far from the only Cavalier talking about a title. In fact, it was pretty much a chorus.

“That’s what we’re about ... that’s where our focus is, that’s what this team has been built for,” third-year guard Daniel Gibson said.

“We all have one goal I guarantee you, talk to anybody, everybody’s saying a championship, that’s the goal,” new point guard Mo Williams said.

The addition of Williams creates much of the optimism. A 17-point-a-game scorer in Milwaukee the last two years, Williams’ ability to create offense for himself and others has him viewed as the missing piece to a championship puzzle.

“Mo Williams is an unbelievable talent,” said James, who saw Williams average 26.0 points and 9.0 assists against the Cavs. “You can watch any film of what he did to us last year in four games. It was like, ‘Wow, he either has something against us or he’s sending up smoke signals to go get him in a trade.’”

The addition of Williams is part of the positive vibe around the team.

“We’re going to have a dedicated team, we’re going to have a team that has one goal in mind,” Williams said. “We’re not competing against each other. We’re competing against the other team.”

Gone are the problems of a year ago when months removed from reaching the NBA Finals the Cavs were, in some ways, a fractured team. Holdouts and injuries caused problems and a winning chemistry never took hold, leading to a blockbuster trade at the deadline.

Three of the starters acquired in that trade -- Delonte West, Wally
Szczerbiak and Ben Wallace -- remain part of the Cavs core. They are joined by James, Gibson, Williams, Zydrunas Ilgauskas, Anderson Varejao and Sasha Pavlovic as holdovers from last season’s team. Newcomers include veterans Lorenzen Wright and Tarence Kinsey, and rookies J.J. Hickson and Darnell Jackson.

Much of this group spent parts of the summer together, especially within the last month. James likes the mix.

“We had guys hold out for personal reasons last year,” James said. “We had guys who were here, but not mentally here. It's just a different feeling.”

The Cavs went 45-37 a year ago and lost a seven-game series to the Celtics in the Eastern Conference semifinals. The Cavs had a chance to win Game 7, but couldn’t get it done and Boston went on to win a championship.

“We were that close to beating them,” Szczerbiak said. “We have to use that to fuel us. That’s what we want to accomplish.”

The Cavs begin practices today. They hold an intrasquad scrimmage at noon Saturday at Rhodes Arena in Akron before the preseason begins Oct. 7 at home against Toronto. The regular season opens Oct. 28 in Boston.

Wallace, who won a title with the Pistons, sees the ingredients of a championship team.

“I’m liking what I’m seeing,” he said. “We got a lot of different guys that can do a lot of different things.”

Teamwork, though, will ultimately determine what the Cavs achieve this season.

“It’s going to be whether or not we can come together as a team and go out there and play as one in order for us to get back to where we want to be,” Wallace said. “We’ve still got a lot of work to do. But we can definitely get it done.”

James sounds determined to make sure it gets done.

“I see our potential,” he said. “You can’t allow one day to go by where we don’t get better because I see how good we can be.

“There's not much of an excuse now. We have guys that can go out and play.”

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